The MIT and Stanford professors are creating a unit called a cryptocurrency

The best American brains in academic studies are now working together to create a new digital currency.

According to a recent Fortune report, MIT and Stanford professors are working together to create a new cryptocurrency that intends to do what Bitcoin can not yet do: process thousands of transactions per second.

Who is working on the project?

The professors of seven prestigious colleges in the United States, including Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California, Berkeley, are working together to create the digital currency.

The project intends to create a cryptocurrency able to achieve much higher transaction speeds than Bitcoin without compromising decentralization.

The new cryptocurrency will be called Unit-e.

It will be the first initiative of Distributed Technology Research (DTR); a non-profit foundation supported by Pantera Capital, where academics will develop decentralized technologies.

Why do we need a new cryptocurrency?

Bitcoin is the first generation of blockchain-based digital resources that has provided industry recognition, but has not yet adopted mainstream adoption.

The restrictions in the Bitcoin network interfere with its scalability and performance.

The co-chief investment officer of Pantera Capital, Joey Krug, noted that the mainstream is aware of the scalability problems of these networks.

He added:

"We are at the height of something where, if this does not scale relatively quickly, it could be relegated to ideas that were beautiful but that did not work in practice: more like 3D printing than the Internet."

Therefore, DTR wants to create an encryption that can process transactions at speeds that are even greater than that of the giant Visa payment services.

The goal of Unit-e is to be able to process 10,000 transactions per second. They plan to launch Unit-e in the second half of 2019.

According to Pramod Viswanath, a researcher and professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the team first deconstructed how blockchain technology works and understands the limitations of its performance so that they can design new technologies that operate the closest possible at these limits.

He said:

"Bitcoin has shown us that distributed trust is possible, but it is not a downsizing in a dimension that could make it a real global daily money.It was a turning point that has the ability to change human lives, but this will not happen unless that technology can not be increased ".

Viswanath's university colleague, Andrew Miller, said they could not guarantee the success of cryptocurrency, especially if they fail to achieve short-term traction, but ultimately the best technology should win in the long run.

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